Dr. Miner helps companies strategize and develop their future-leader pipeline. Her motto is "Leadership From Day One." www.trainingdr.com
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The workplace has changed drastically in the last few months; I don’t have to tell you that. People are figuring out how to manage their time, maintain personal connection and remain productive, all while working remotely. One crucial item that has fallen by the wayside is professional development — especially the development of future leaders.
Leadership skills development is most successful when it is an immersive and visceral experience. Therefore, most leadership development programs are dependent on in-person meetings and collaborative activities with others in the organization. So, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to teach the soft skills required of a leader via an impersonal online learning experience.
Some organizations are beginning to grapple with how to have the same success via an online format, since, for the foreseeable future that is all that is available to us. Other organizations would rather take a “gap year” in leadership development and wait for the return to their normal development activities.
An Immediate Solution
One thing that can be done immediately, and with great success, is mentoring. In my experience, mentoring is the cheapest and most effective method for developing future leaders. It has always surprised me how few organizations employ it. All it takes is time and a little bit of structure.
In his book Corporate Coaching, Sraban Mukherjee defines mentoring as "a system of semi-structured guidance whereby one person shares [their] knowledge, skills, and experiences to assist others to progress in their own lives and careers."
One benefit of business professionals working from home is that it is easier to schedule time to work together and to work with others across the organization. You don’t have to find an open conference room or even be in the same building or state to work with a mentor who can help you to develop your career.
With all meetings conducted online these days, the playing field has been leveled. A younger colleague can be invited to sit in on a management meeting, a sales call or a performance review to listen and learn with less scrutiny about why they are there. Hearing “I’ve invited Shonda to sit in today,” is likely less concerning and more comfortable than seeing a clearly junior person show up to an in-person meeting. After the meeting, the mentor and mentee can discuss what occurred, why the mentor made the decisions that they did or took control of the conversation when they did, and what might happen next, with pros and cons.
I'd also like to add that mentor-mentee relationships are great if they skip an organizational level because it helps provide the mentee with more insight into how the organization is run “at the top.”
Creating A Virtual Mentor Program
Because of the convenience of meeting remotely, there are more opportunities for mentoring and learning conversations. Again, all it takes is time and a bit of structure. Here are some suggested steps to start mentoring in your organization if it’s unlikely your workplace will reopen soon:
• Assign all leaders the responsibility of mentoring up to three younger colleagues. Managers might be required to mentor one individual, while senior leaders such as directors or vice presidents could accommodate up to three.
• Require at least two meetings a week. One meeting is a one-on-one between mentor and mentee to ask questions and receive coaching, and the other is a meeting to which the mentee is invited to listen and learn. The one-on-one meetings can be as short as 15 minutes. What’s important is to have a consistent dialogue based on what is currently happening in the wider organization.
• The mentor must be tasked with asking open-ended questions more than giving advice and guidance. "What do you think should be our next move?" is more instructional than "What I’d do next is ..."
• Each individual — mentor and mentee — needs to keep a journal so that they can see the progress made over time. This is also a place for the mentee to reflect on what they’ve learned (because the best growth comes from reflection and introspection) and jot down questions for their next one-on-one meeting.
If Needed, Start With Training
If your organization has never utilized mentoring, it's best to start by defining the role of a mentor. Most individuals in leadership positions are comfortable with assessing situations and giving answers, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what you want a mentor to do. A mentor’s role is to listen, facilitate and gently guide an up-and-coming colleague. So, it is important to learn the role’s expectations and how to tamp one’s natural instincts as a manager/leader. This is a little easier when the mentor and mentee are in different disciplines such as finance and research because the conversation stays at a higher level of business knowledge as opposed to the brass tacks of the work being done.
Even if your organization already has a mentoring process in place, there's more to learn. This Harvard Business Review article, "Social Distancing Doesn’t Have to Disrupt Mentorship," offers excellent advice on how to shift the mentor’s role from in-person to online meetings, how to validate feelings of uncertainty and overwhelm, and how to authentically share one’s own experiences.
Until we're able to resume professional development in person, purposeful mentoring relationships are the best approach for developing future leaders. According to research, the benefits of mentorship include forming stronger bonds with the organization, having higher job satisfaction and perceiving greater support from the organization. Now, more than ever, those things are vitally important as we work from home.
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